Jam – 2012-03-12 – Carroll’s

16 Mar 2012 Leave a comment

by deadstein in Jams Tags: , , , , , , ,

It was Monday night, but not like too many Monday nights we have had before.  It was a Monday drum-a-thon.  Let’s start with Howie Weiner’s Book, Tangled Up in Tunes.  I had just finished the book, was posting my reviews about it; and as I was in and out of Facebook one day, I saw Stagger Lee Ganbarg available via instant chat.  There was a quick “how do you do?” and I told him a about the book.  After that little chat about Howie’s book I asked him, if wanted to play and next thing I know, after 9 year of not seeing him, there he was behind drumkit #2 in Caroll’s Studio 2.

Speaking of books, Bill Sloan just the previous day asked me about my new Jerry Garcia Song Book, Version 8 and I squeaked out a few links to the book, just prior to leaving for the jam.  At the end of the message I told him we were playing at 8 o’clock and invited him to show up.  He said he probably would.

Other guests for the night include Stevie and Lindsey and Ryan of Meg Ryan, but meg wasn’t there.  Ryan played drums on a couple of songs with Scott.  Bill jammed a couple of songs with Lee.  For the most part Bill played some nice bongo, percussion, etc, which he put an SM-58 on and it sounded really good.  The combo of Lee, Scott and Bill was a great back drop to the rest of us.  I really liked the sound and the vibe in the room.

For the rest of the jam, Kevin played his old Ibanez bass with flat-wounds.  He didn’t use it for the whole night.  I was with my Strat, Alan was with his blue-light special and Rich was tinkling behind all that wood.  It was a special night of jamming and look forward to making it happen again in the near future.

When Rich gets back into town we will hopefully get to listen to the songs and see the set list.  Until then, this video of the Let it Grow, shot by Scott while Lee and Bill played drums will have to suffice.

I got the MP3s, and they are available at the following location. 21 Beefy songs is a full plate for an evening.

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/03-12-12/

Jam – 2012-03-05 – Carroll’s

12 Mar 2012 Leave a comment

by deadstein in Jams Tags: , , , , , ,


Another Monday night jam that I almost didn’t get the posting in for.  I hardly did as I am writing it 10 minutes before I leave to go to the 3/12/2012 jam with Lee Ganbarg.  The jam of Monday March 5 had no guests and was just the 5 of us playing a good set list.  The Rand-O-Matic served us well and delivered us a solid night of music to play increasing the odds of success.  I don’t have much more to say because I have to go out and play, so freak out and listen to the MP3s below:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/03-05-12/

Jam – 2012-02-28 – Carroll’s

04 Mar 2012 2 Comments

by deadstein in Jams Tags: , , , , , , ,

At Carroll’s, on a comfortable Tuesday night, we had the five of us around for a jam.  We didn’t have a specific setlist for the night but an improved method for selecting songs.  Previously we used the simple Select-o-matic technique to randomly generate a song to play.  The simple Select-o-matic was nothing more than using the shuffle feature on my iPhone’s iPod app to select one song from a playlist of each Grateful Dead song.  It worked but Alligator was as likely to come us as Bertha, and that wasn’t right.  This week I created an improved Select-o-matic technique and I make it accessible to the world on the newly renovated http://Deadstein.com.  Within the general songs page of Deadstein.com is now the Rand-O-Matic, which is a smart was to randomly select songs.  It’s designed to squeeze into an iPhone screen but can be utilized from any browser.

We used the Rand-O-Matic to select the songs for the evening with veto rights for the band.  The Rand-O-Matic showed one of its weaknesses right off the bat as it selected Aiko as our opener for the night which was the opener from the Feb 22, 2012 jam last week. I’ll probably never have a solution for this issue.  Nevertheless, the Rand-O-Matic worked flawlessly for the rest of the night.  It selected songs which for the most part were in line with what was appropriate for the parameters it was provided.  It resulted in a pretty solid looking set list.

There is more improvement to be made to the algorithm, some easy, some more challenging. There is improvement still to be made to the interface, but so far, the Rand-O-Matic looks like a positive addition to the Deadstein experience.

The week’s guests included Ryan of Meg Ryan.  He plays drums, which is something I didn’t know until he was there behind Scott’s kit playing drums on the Hurts Me Too and the Looks Like Rain.  He brought a couple of his friends, Lindsey and Stevie, a boy/girl combo that wasn’t from Fleetwood Mac, but what are the odds?

Alan, still on the mend over a variety of issues, didn’t stick around for the ever deteriorating second sets of Deadstein.  I took the deteriorating opportunity to get the Core-4 of us the flail our way through the Overture to Tommy, which is now included in the packets in the new book.  This was our first try playing it, and it showed more promise than I expected on the first try.  After that Whosie-what-nonsense, we Randomized our way into a Garband set.  While the Rand-O-Matic selected Let It Rock to start, Rich exerted veto power and played Money Honey in lieu.  I was surprised that Rich didn’t want to play a Let It Rock, but it propelled us forward.  The Rand-O-Matic selected the rest and got us that extra burst of energy that comes from inevitability.

To hear some of the freakin’ random nonsense, listen tot he MP3s below:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/02-28-12/

Jam-2012-02-22 – Carroll’s

23 Feb 2012 1 Comment

by deadstein in Deadstein Forums, Jams Tags: , , , , , ,

It was another very interesting night of Deadstein. There were several cool features of the night that made it one of the more memorable evenings of Deadstein. We had the whole band back together for the first time in a while. Then we also had the use of the new Jerry Garcia Song Book, version 8, for the first time as a normal part of the evening.

Lastly, I have to mention the presence of Howie Weiner. Howie is the person who wrote the new book Tangled Up In Tunes, which I just read and recommend highly to everyone, but in addition, he’s an old friend that I went to several Dead shows with. I know Howie because he was Doug Schmell’s friend growing up in his high school days while turning into a Jerry-head as explained in the book. I haven’t seen Howie probably since 1985 or so and due to the Facebook and the publicity associate with his book, we got to talking. He lives in the city what do you know? Ying-Yoink, next thing I know is Howie is at a Deadstein jam.

Alan came in with the notion of doing the Swing Auditorium Grateful Dead show from February 26, 1977 and it was funny how he suggested it and Howie kenw the Swing from the feb. 26 date. Nevertheless the jam’s date was actually February 22 and the Swing Auditorium show was February 26 and therefore, I had no real connection to doing that set list. This was probably to be disappointment of Alan and the detriment of the evening. Coming off of the jam that we just followed a set list, the February 17 show from last week, I wasn’t too anxious to do another set list for some reason. For the most part for the first set we let Howie pick the songs and he lead us through a typical normal sounding Grateful Dead set list that was cool, as if I was going selecting the songs myself, pretty funny I thought.

For the first set, we played well, we played hard, and we played with purpose getting us some good music. I thought our Cumberland Blues was one of our better efforts for that song.
Howie stayed for the first set and left after the Playing –> Let It Grow –> Playing, which ended the first set. It was great to see Howie and I’m sure we will see him soon.

We took a half time break at that point. It was a pretty long one which obviously was a mistake. It led to a second set that was played with a lot less zeal then the first. Scott was zoning and was in no mood to do anything too long and spacey which at that point would definitely knock him off his throne. Therefore we found our way into doing many a Beatles song. Scott requested the Abbey Road medley and somehow we did it. I mean we had a stumble or two but nothing that a nice Rich Brotman cut and paste couldn’t resolve. It was a good, fun effort on our part.

Besides the new book, which is exciting and you hear me blogging about it quite a bit at this point, I also was very excited to unveil the new Deadstein.com website to everyone at the jam. Deadstein.com has been down for probably two or three years now ever since I kind of crashed the server. I finally got it resolved not too long ago and over the weekend made the effort to get the website back up and running. In essence I resurrected it from its death and I’m looking forward to having a little fun with it at this point. I’m sure Kevin’s going to be liking it. I’m probably going to post its own blog post related to the resurgence of Deadstein.com so look for that somewhere later on but it’s a nice portal through all or Deadstein social networks for whatever that means to anyone, which probably isn’t much, but it’s gonna be fun anyway to look back on the past into using Deadsteam.com as a conduit back to the past as well to helping us play during our jams.

In closing on this jam, I have to mention the other guest, Scott Bayer with his bongos. He was about to start playing on doing the Abbey Road medley and I definitely had to call him on it and tell him to not play during it. The Don’t Let Me Down that we tried was pretty disastrous, amazing like that song has to be so difficult and much of the second set was not our best effort. As so often is the case.

You’ll be able to listen to the songs on MP3 once Rich posts them, so look forward to that. I’ll get them up there as soon as I can. Please take a look at the new website and start interacting on one of the multitude of social networks that I am giving us all access to. I especially have some hope with respect to using Google+ with its hangout features where we can actually potentially go over songs vis-à-vis video conference call and get some practice done at home what he think about guys?

Well, until next week, Freak out!

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/02-22-12/

Jam – 2012-02-17 – Carroll’s

19 Feb 2012 5 Comments

by deadstein in Jams Tags: , , , , , ,

In the rarest of occurrences, Deadstein had to play on a Friday night. Schedules dictated that we had to play this Friday night and we made the best of it. Rich broke out the candles Scott broke out the tequila we said a little prayer and we were on our way.

This being February 17 we decided to tackle the infamous Oswego, New York Jerry Garcia band show. February 1980 has always been one of my favorite Jerry Garcia months in his history. And that show on February 17 may have been the best of the tour. It taught me the greatness of a Money Honey and Positively Fourth Street and the other versions of the songs are just filled with immense energy and excitement. So, 2-17-80 was our mission for the night.

Without Alan around for the night, it was going to be Core-4, which was appropriate for doing the Jerry Garcia Band music, but Rich had a surprise for all of us.

Just as we were about to finish the first set of the JGB show incomes Mini T surprising us all with her presence. Who would’ve expected her? Not me and it was a tremendous surprise.

We quickly finished up the first set when she arrived, throwing down that Positively Fourth Street with some of the respect it was due and then we embarked upon a full Terez set of classic Terez numbers.

I think the Come Together into Hey Pocky Way really got us going and put us on the path of finishing up many a good song with Terez. The fact that we were on a predominantly Jerry Garcia Band evening I think got us warmed up and tuned up to do many of those good Jerry Garcia Band types of songs. And the Tore Up got us going in that direction. This coupled with That’s What Love Will Make You Do really gave us some good material to enjoy for the future I am sure. One of the nicer moments was the Oh darling which we actually did two times and gave us an opportunity to really get it down and I think we got some pretty good music out of that one.

Finally with respect to the to new book stuff, stuff let’s not forget some of the fun we have. We did an attempted a very fun and cool Pinball Wizard a Deadstein first and I think we did a really good job of it was a lot of fun. And then we closed with the classic Carpenters song Sing which we did with Terez many many years ago and it was great to do it again and I think we also did that some good justice so that’s going to be one for the ages. In closing on Terez, it was great to see your a lot of fun to play with her and hopefully you do it again real soon.

As far as guests we had the couple of Meg Ryan, or something like that, came in the room hung out for a few songs enjoyed us and requested that He’s Gone that we did and they were on their merry way, that’s an understatement. Then we had the ever so annoying Scott Bayer joined the room with his bongos, that I will hit him over the head with one day so that’s another guest of some ill repute, and that is an understatement.

In finishing up the 2-17-80 show we were able to get most of it done because Sitting Here in Limbo and After Midnight, or both songs, we have done with Terez. so we were able to incorporate her with finishing up this classic show which was a lot of fun. Actually, we weren’t able to finish it up but came pretty darn close. As choppy as the After Midnight Ellen Rigby After Midnight was, it was still quite a journey and a nice adventure to undertake and to come out the other side on.

In closing, the new book version 8 had a very precarious opening introduction to the band. Since we were playing this show I’ll Take a Melody was to open it and as we started playing I had a brand-new write up of the song that is new to the new book. As we were playing it I just noticed several errors in it that were comical in the fact that they were so present in the new write up. Fortunately for the most, part we know how to play that song and no one followed the errands symbols in the book but nevertheless, as I was playing it was killing me to see such blatant mistakes in the book. Additionally, That’s Alright Mama is scheduled to be played in the second set and it’s a song that is not in my book. It’s is a simple song E-A-D and I knew the lyrics anyway but we would’ve gotten through it without any issue. For night that I expected my book to shine and be highlighted, it was really a night dominated by February 17, 1980 and the return of Terez, both being exceptional moments in our path of playing all this music weekend and week out. The Friday jam was fun, even with the terrible traffic on the way in, the freedom afforded by playing on Friday versus during the week has something to be said for it. Till we do it again, Freak Out.

For those that want to listen to the happenings, check out the MP3 links below.  Thanks as always to Rich for doing the recordings.

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/02-17-12/

Jam – 2012-02-08 – Carroll’s

12 Feb 2012 7 Comments

by deadstein in Jams Tags: , , , , , ,

Back in Carroll’s this week with the entire band back in tow.  It seems more difficult than usual to get our schedules in synch, but this Wednesday we were in such synchronicity.  With this jam on the eve of the release of the Jerry Garcia Song Book, version 8 we were being pulled by its influence throughout the night.

The Money Honey was a repeat from last week and felt even better with Rich helping out of the piano.  Though it wasn’t recorded, the Far From Me is in the new book and Rich, Scott and I worked our way through it for a first in Deadstein history.  It’s hard but the write up works and should be a fun song to play. Additionally, the King Bee as a coherent, entire song was also a Deadstein’s first.  The Eminence Front, also a first, and the He Ain’t Give You None was played with the same type of coherency that accompanies the release of a new book.  By the way, the books have arrived at my house and are big and beautiful.  Can’t wait to distribute them.

There were some good parts of normal songs including the Stranger to open and a Jack-A-Roe that felt really good.  We had problems with other songs, such as the Let It Grow which I tried to interject a little Tommy Captain Walker jamming in when it seem to fall apart.  It just made everything worse.

Overall, it was a pretty good night, playing my Strat I felt comfortable in my touch on the guitar and having one of Carroll’s Fuch’s Black-Face treatment of the Fender Reverb really makes the guitar sound good.  Kevin wasn’t so fortunate as his main power amp kept blowing fuses as it overheated. He switched amps out and was good to go for the closing of the night.

In the world, my successful run of posting on Sundays did lead the Giants to their 4th franchise Superbowl, so maybe I will have to keep up the Sunday postings until they lose their next game.  As we are having trouble trying the schedule the next jam’s, “Houston, we have a problem” has been the subject of the email chain.  Coincidentally, Houston really did have a problem as Whitney died this week, from causes we will soon find out about.

In other news,I just started reading Howard Weiner’s (Doug Schmell’s high-school friend) book, Tangled Up in Tunes, the story of his road trips and life of following Jerry and Dylan.  Much of it mimics my life and is filled with my very own experiences.  I suggest you check it out.  If you just want to check us out from this week, do so below at your own risk.

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/02-08-12/

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